Today, William Shatner turns 85 !!!
Wikipedia.org Article for William Shatner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner
50 years ago the first episodes of the original Star Trek series began airing in 1966 and creator Gene Roddenberry's vision began to take shape.
Find the link to Gene Roddenberry and the original Star Trek Series' Wikipedia.org Articles from our Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) Post:
http://film366.blogspot.com/2016/02/star-trek-insurrection-1998.html
It is a festive time in the Star Trek universe this year, so let's pick one of the Star Trek movies that William Shatner personally Directed.
We at Film366.com have mentioned before that not all of the movies picked this year are complete gems. Some are just picked because of their imprint on popular culture, cult following, film history implications or something that could be considered an important film foot-note. This film is one of those, for as bad as a reception that this film received back in 1989 and was destroyed by critics and some fans, this one marks an important part in Star Trek and Film history .........
....... Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Run Time: 107 mins
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Futuristic
Format: Widescreen Format, Color
Director: William Shatner
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner and Laurence Luckinbill
IMDB.com Entry for the Film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098382/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Wikipedia.org Article for the Film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_V%3A_The_Final_Frontier
Wikipedia.org Article for Leonard Nimoy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Nimoy
Wikipedia.org Article for DeForest Kelley:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeForest_Kelley
Wikipedia.org Article for James Doohan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doohan
Wikipedia.org Article for Walter Koenig:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Koenig
Wikipedia.org Article for Nichelle Nichols:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichelle_Nichols
Wikipedia.org Article for George Takei:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Takei
Wikipedia.org Article for David Warner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Warner_(actor)
Wikipedia.org Article for Laurence Luckinbill:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Luckinbill
Trailer for the film on YouTube:
This film is considered as being a low point in Star Trek history. The franchise had just finished a successful, amazing three-film run that started with the return of Khan and ended with the Enterprise crew saving the Earth and a "species known as the hump-back whale". The last two of these three films were directed by Leonard Nimoy to critical success. So, what is a Captain supposed to do??? Bitch that he needed to direct one too, so along came Star Trek V and William Shatner's directorial debut. Don't get me wrong I love Bill Shatner, but it's not a secret that the man who established James T. Kirk as a household name would probably have somewhat of a huge ego and Paramount wanted to make their guy happy. - Phil
Production - Star Trek V Press Conference 1989 on YouTube:
Due to a Writer's Guild strike the Final Frontier was mostly written by Shatner as well and he came up with a pretty interesting idea too. What would happen if an ego like Kirk met God? And, did anybody know that Spock had a brother? This is the part that makes this one so interesting and a must-watch to see. Shatner had some issues with directing his cast. He also got slammed with a fairly low budget, because Paramount had started cutting corners to help pay for the new Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) TV series that was taking the world by storm. So, the special effects are cheaper and pretty bad and the acting is off too. But, Shatner did a pretty good job at his camera directing. He pulled off a lot of shots that were never tried before on Trek. - Phil
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Behind the Scenes - Looking Back (1989) on YouTube:
It was also interesting finding out that Spock has a brother played by a relative unknown character actor named Laurence Luckinbill, who Shatner saw while channel-surfing one night on late-night TV. However, as I said before, what really makes this film a must see is watching the ego of Shatner stacked up against what appears to be God and watching that unfold, along with all the other issues that plagued this movie is something to see. This one is probably my favorite of the guilty-pleasures of Trek, for it is the one film out of all of them that takes the entire history of Star Trek (in the real world and the created one) and puts it into a 100 minute microcosm of that universe and shows us the real-world issues that come when making movies in Hollywood.
- Phil
The Star Trek Universe - Original Interview with William Shatner on location at Yosemite Park on YouTube:
Click the link below at GoWatchIt.com to see where you can stream or watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) online or on TV right now:
http://gowatchit.com/movies/star-trek-v-the-final-frontier-1139
Or check out TVGuide.com to see if this film is playing on TV/Cable in your area:
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/star-trek-v-the-final-frontier/127468/
Check back in tomorrow ......................
For our next Film of the Day .....................
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